Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hawaiian Kingdom Constitution and US Governance Documents

Over the centuries, the islands weren’t unified under single rule.  Leadership sometimes covered portions of an island, sometimes covered a whole island or groups of islands.  Island rulers, Aliʻi or Mōʻī, typically ascended to power through warfare and familial succession.

The kapu system was the common structure, the rule of order, and religious and political code.  This social and political structure gave leaders absolute rule and authority.

Rank depended primarily upon blood; but of great importance was the conduct of life by which one could, by carelessness in preserving the kapu and in making proper marriages, lose caste and prerogatives under the severe discipline of the Aha-ali‘i (Council of Chiefs,) or could, through a royal marriage, raise the rank of one’s descendants upon the family line. (Beckwith)

“Beginning with Kamehameha I, Hawaiian ali‘i had been keenly aware of the vulnerability of Hawai‘i to Western imperialist powers. He and his chiefs knew that the sheer numbers and military might of the Western powers could not be resisted by Hawaiian defenses.”

“As a result, Kamehameha I began looking for ways to protect his Hawai‘i Island Kingdom from Western powers even before he had succeeded in uniting the Hawaiian Islands.”

“Their traditional world had been changing for decades: increased contact with Western influences in the late eighteenth century, the Kamehameha wars, and Kamehameha’s death followed by the abrogation of the kapu system in 1819, population decline due to Western diseases, … rapidly changing economics and their traditional way of life, in general.”

“When the [American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions] ABCFM missionaries arrived [in 1820] with this background and learned that the ‘ai kapu had been abrogated, they believed it to be caused by divine intervention. But they were met with understandable apprehension.”

“The mō‘i and ali’i were engaged in a search for sovereignty in Euro-American terms. In order to maintain their independence in an era of imperialism, they created a nation that would be recognized as sovereign by other civilized nations.”

“Allegedly ‘primitive’ societies were being annexed by European nations throughout the Pacific in the mid nineteenth century, including closely related Polynesian societies in New Zealand, Tahiti, and the Marquesas.”

“As Britain, France, and the United States vied for power and influence in the Pacific, each sent warships to the islands demanding special treatment for its resident citizens and threatening to take over the kingdom.”

“In response to these pressures, Kamehameha III and the high-ranking chiefs were engaged in transforming the Hawaiian system of law and governance into an Anglo-American political system under the rule of law.”

“Their strategy was to create a ‘civilized’ nation, in European terms, to induce those European and American powers whose recognition defined sovereign status to acknowledge the kingdom’s independence.” (Sally Engle Merry)

“William Richards, an ABCFM missionary, became an important resource for the chiefs when he arrived among the Second Company in 1823. He and his wife, Clarissa, were stationed at Lahaina one month after their arrival in Honolulu.”  (Kokua Aku, Kokua Mai; Woods, Nogelmeier and Sai)

William Richards briefly went to the continent.  “When Mr Richards returned from a visit to the United States his place as minister at Lahaina had been filled by Dr. Baldwin and Mr Richards had been withdrawn.”

“Hoapill therefore requested that Mr Richards become instructor for the king and his court, since he had been a father to the chiefs of the royal family at Lahaina and to those of all Maui, and had carried them through their troubles.” (Kamakau)

“It was thus that Mr Richards had taught the chiefs of Maui, ‘The power of the law must be alike over rich and poor; in order to govern peacefully the law must have power over all alike’; and these few words had given him such a reputation for fairness and effectiveness that the king now chose Mr Richards as minister and instructor in the affairs of government.” (Kamakau)

“Richards’ initial service in his new position was a course of lectures to the chiefs on political economy and the general science of government. Writing just a week after he began his new work, he stated:

‘I lecture to the chiefs on Political economy, every day at 10 o’clock, making use of Waylands system as the foundation … I endeavor to propose some practical subject every day.’” (Richards, Kuykendall)

“Mr. Richards was chosen as their leader to teach the chiefs to understand the ways in which other races of men lived.”  (Kamakau)

“Richards was the mapmaker, but the ali’i were the captains who made the crucial decisions about what direction to sail the ship of state.”

“The Hawaiian ali‘i (chiefs) and their Hawaiian advisors developed the pathbreaking 1839 Declaration of Rights and 1840 Constitution with instruction and guidance from William Richards”. (Kokua Aku, Kokua Mai; Woods, Nogelmeier and Sai)

“The Hawaiian people believed in William Richards (Rikeke), the foreigner who taught the king to change the government of the Hawaiian people to a constitutional monarchy and end that of a supreme ruler, and his views were adopted.”

By means of these lessons in political economy with the chiefs he was educating them to confer together as leaders of other governments did, to compare the constitutional form of government with governments which had no constitution …

… and to see that the constitutional form of government belonged to those governments which were most famous and whose king, chiefs, and people were most advanced. Such governments excelled in knowledge and wealth and represented progress in the search after wealth and trade.

Thus the minds of the chiefs became enlightened. ‘So this is it! [said they] Here is the way to gain wealth and honor.’ Perhaps these chiefs were right, perhaps wrong.

“(He) met king & chiefs daily when other public business did not prevent, and as fast as (he) could prepare matter read it to them in the form of lectures. (He) endeavored to make the lectures as familiar as possible, by repeating them, and drawing the chiefs into free conversation on the subject of the Lecture.”

“They uniformly manifested a becoming interest in the school thus conducted, and took an active part in the discussion of the various topics introduced in the Lectures. The Lectures themselves were mere outlines of general principles of political economy, which of course could not have been understood except by full illustration drawn from Hawaiian custom and Hawaiian circumstances. …”

“The conversation frequently took so wide a range that there was abundant opportunity to refer to any and to every fault of the present system of government. But when the faults of the present system were pointed out & the chiefs felt them & then pressed (him) with the question, ‘Pehea la e pono ai,’ (How will it be bettered?)” (Richards Report to the Sandwich Islands Mission, May 1, 1839)

“During the year (Richards had) been called on to translate various documents and laws, some of which were transmitted to the USA & some were for promulgation at the Islands. (He had) said scarcely nothing to the king and chiefs respecting the existing evils or defects in the government, except as the subject has come up naturally and almost necessarily while discussing established principles of Political Economy.”

“A system of laws has been written out by (Boaz) Mahune, a graduate of the (Lahainaluna) high school, and he was directed by the King to conform them to the principles of Political Economy which they had learned. Those laws are some what extensive and protect all private property.”

“According to this code, no chief has any authority over any man, any farther than it is given him by specific enactment, and no tax can be levied, other than that which is specified in the printed law, and no chief can act as a judge in a case where he is personally interested, and no man can be dispossessed of land which he has put under cultivation except for crimes specified in the law.” (Richards Report to the Sandwich Islands Mission, May 1, 1839)

Mahune (with others from Lahainaluna) drafted the 1839 Hawaiian Bill of Rights, also known as the 1839 Constitution of Hawaiʻi.  This document was an attempt by King Kamehameha III and his chiefs to guarantee that the Hawaiian people would not lose their tenured land, and provided the groundwork for a free enterprise system.

Many refer to that document as Hawaiʻi’s Magna Charta (describing certain liberties, putting actions within a rule of law and served as the foundation for future laws.)  It served as a preamble to the subsequent Hawaiʻi Constitution (1840.)

It was a great and significant concession voluntarily granted by the king to his people. It defined and secured the rights of the people, but it did not furnish a plan or framework of the government.  (Kuykendall)

The Declaration of Rights of 1839 was influenced by Christian fundamentals, as well as rights noted in the US Declaration of Independence; it recognized three classes of persons having vested rights in the lands; 1st, the Government; 2nd, the Chiefs; and 3rd, the native Tenants. It declared protection of these rights to both the Chiefly and native Tenant classes.

Constitution of 1840

Then, Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) initiated and implemented Hawaiʻi’s first constitution (1840) (one of five constitutions governing the Islands – and then, later, governance as part of the United States.)  Of his own free will he granted the Constitution of 1840, as a boon to his country and people, establishing his Government upon a declared plan. (Rex v. Booth – Hanifin)

That constitution introduced the innovation of representatives chosen by the people (rather than as previously solely selected by the Aliʻi.)  This gave the common people a share in the government’s actual political power for the first time.

In addition, the 1840 Constitution recognized rights of the people; its preamble read, “’God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on the earth,’ in unity and blessedness. God has also bestowed certain rights alike on all men and all chiefs, and all people of all lands.”

“Absolute monarchy had come to an end in 1840. Since that time the kingdom had been governed under no less than four constitutions: the original one freely granted by Kamehameha III in 1840; one adopted by the legislature with the concurrence of the same King in 1852; one promulgated by Kamehameha V in 1864 on his own authority; and one granted in 1887 by Kalākaua as the result of a popular uprising (the Bayonet Constitution).” (Spaulding – Kosaki)

For two centuries, the trend in Hawaiʻi has been toward expanding the numbers of people who have a say in all parts of their government: from Kamehameha I’s near-absolute monarchy to a hereditary oligarchy, to an oligarchy open to men with money, to American republic.  (Hanifin)

How do the Hawaiian Kingdom Constitution (1840) & Declaration of Rights (1839) compare with the US Declaration of Independence (1776)?

Both documents assert the sovereignty of their respective entities. The Declaration of Independence proclaims the sovereignty of the thirteen American colonies from British rule, while the Hawaiian Constitution asserts the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Both documents emphasize the importance of individual rights. The Declaration of Independence declares that all individuals are endowed with certain unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Similarly, the Hawaiian Constitution guarantees various rights to its citizens, such as the right to due process, freedom of speech, and religious freedom.

Both documents outline the establishment of a government structure. The Declaration of Independence expresses the intention to form a new government that derives its powers from the consent of the governed. Similarly, the Hawaiian Constitution establishes a governmental framework, delineating the roles and responsibilities of different branches of government.

Both documents acknowledge the concept of natural law. The Declaration of Independence asserts that governments are instituted to secure the natural rights of individuals. Likewise, the Hawaiian Constitution recognizes the principles of natural law and acknowledges the importance of maintaining harmony and balance with the natural environment.

While there are some similarities between the Declaration of Independence and the Hawaiian Constitution, it is important to note that they have different historical contexts and purposes. The Declaration of Independence marked the birth of a new nation, while the Hawaiian Constitution was a governing document for the Hawaiian Kingdom. (Alika Desha, ChatOn)

Click HERE for more on this.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Reading of the Declaration of Independence

“I had, ‘marked a Nation’s birth,
And saw her Constellation rise
With radience glancing o’er the Earth.
Daring the Sun with steady eyes
I saw her Eagles mount the skies.’”
(Deborah Norris Logan)

“Deborah Norris was the only daughter in a prominent Philadelphian Quaker family that traced its lineage to the settlement of Pennsylvania, where her grandfather Isaac Norris was a merchant and provincial assembly member.” (O’Leary)

“The granddaughter of Isaac Norris, one of Philadelphia’s original Quaker settlers, Deborah Norris grew up in the heart of the city, where she witnessed momentous events in the history of the United States”. (Asleson)

“Apart from attending Anthony Benezet’s Friends Girls School (the first public school for girls in America), Norris essentially educated herself through reading.” (Asleson) In 1781, she married the physician, diplomat, and politician George Logan.” (O’Leary)

“In 1815, at the age of fifty-four, Logan began keeping a diary in which she resolved to record “whatever I shall hear of fact or anecdote that shall appear worthy of preservation.” (Asleson) On July 4, 1826 (the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declarations of Independence), she wrote:

“It is quite impossible on this remarkable day not to fall into a chain of thoughts inspired by recollections; and I have been much occupied in them – at this time. If I were able to set down what mine have been, with clearness and precision, they would perhaps go far to establish some of my own theories …”

“Setting aside the grand and almost overwhelming remembrances which the anniversary of the Independence of our country never fails to introduce to the mind, with all the train of events that at that time, and since that time, have agitated the political and moral world …”

“ … and thinking only of the tide of human beings that at that period lived and acted and looked forward, as we do now, but have since dropped … “

“It will be no doubt. As it is the anniversary that answers to the ancient Jubliee among the Hebrews, be celebrated with extraordinary zeal in many places, and many commemorative orations will be spoken …”

“My son went to town in the morning but returned to dinner, whilst at table he told us that it was currently reported in town that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were no more, and that they had both died on the anniversary of the Independence!”

“It seems so strange a coincidence to be true, but we shall be resolved of out uncertainty in a very little time. Jefferson is said to have been ill for some days – the elder President to have died suddenly.”

“It seems as if it really was so, and that the 50th anniversary saw the estinction of both their lives – It is singular – and according to the doctrine of chances, what an odds would have been against it so occurring!”

“… we talked about the recent deaths of the old sages of Quincy and Montecello – that of the former was characteristic to the past of ‘A Glorious Anniversary!’ are said to have been the last words which he uttered. …”

“How things relative to these conspicuous characters now crowd upon the mind – mine had dropped every sentiment towards them but respect for their virtues and gratitude for their services to my Country. They were two of the most strenuous and efficient operators of our Independence.”

“Jefferson at that time was comparatively a young man, and not much talked of (at least where I had any opportunity of hearing), but the two Adams were designated as mark and determined men, who drove directly at that measure, and pushed on to commit this country, so that intercepion should be impossible …”

“… and to John Adams the tasks seemed to be allotted to him in and keep together the New England Delegation, so that no impulsion favourable to any thing short of that object should remain on any of their minds …”

“… the danger of a failure the power and resources of the Mother Country, our inadequacy for the contest, and total want of means, which startled more prudent and timid men, were totally overlooked in his enthusiasm.”

“I have heard from a source that I cannot doubt that Dr Franklin himself, who had then recently returned from England, was for putting off the Declaration, to gain more time to meet its difficulties …”

“How a little time spreads the vail of oblivion over the manner of the most important events! It is now a matter of doubt as what hour, or how, the Declaration was given to the people. Perhaps few now remain that heard it read on that day.”

“But of the few I am one: being in the lot adjoining to our old mansion house in Chestnut Street, that then extended to 5th Street …”

“I distinctly heard the words of that Instrument read to the people (I believe from the State House steps, for I did not see the reader) a low building on 5th Street (later the location of City Hall) which prevented my sight and I think it was Charles Thomson’s voice.”

“It took place a little after twelve at noon and they then proceeded down the street, (I understood) to read it at the Court House. It was a time of fearful doubt and great anxiety with the people, many of whom were appalled at the boldness of the measure, and the first audience of the Declaration was neither very numerous, nor composed of the most respectable class of citizens.”

“Though there is no mistake in saying that the Revolution itself was (I believe) in all the States, the worth of the best informed and most efficient men; but then they only looked, in general, to their resistance to the Tyranny of the Government, inducing an abandonment of its obsessious designs, as have been the case with the Stamp Act …”

“[I]ndeed the events of the 4th have caused such a train of thoughts that when I had time to write, I chose rather to set down what occurred to be of other day …”

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250 Years Ago … Battle of Bunker Hill

Following the battles at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, colonial forces from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island formed a New England army to surround and contain the British forces occupying Boston.

To prevent British soldiers from conducting further attacks on the countryside after the march to Lexington and Concord, 20,000 provincial militiamen encircle Boston in the spring of 1775. The Charlestown peninsula and Dorchester Heights, commanding both the city of Boston and Boston harbor, lie abandoned.  This has been referred to as the Siege of Boston.

Hoping to make the British “masters of these heights,” General Gage, in conference with Major Generals William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne, plans to seize the neglected positions before the colonists do so.

News of Gage’s intent filters across from Boston and down from New Hampshire on June 15. Acting quickly on this intelligence, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety orders General Artemas Ward, commander of the colonial militia surrounding Boston, to race the British to the Charlestown peninsula, capture Bunker Hill, and then seize the Dorchester hills.

Colonel William Prescott and General Israel Putnam were the ranking officers in the expedition to Charlestown, however Prescott, being from Massachusetts, commanded the majority of the men.

The following day, Ward orders Colonel William Prescott, with the aid of one thousand colonial troops, to take and fortify Bunker Hill. Unknown to the British, Prescott and his troops arrive at the Charlestown peninsula that same night.

Prescott and other officers ultimately decide to bypass Bunker Hill, rising 110 feet and situated near the only route back to Cambridge, and instead give “orders to march” to Breed’s Hill, a smaller mount further south and within cannon range of Boston and British ships in the harbor.  They built an earthen fortress 160-feet long and 30-feet high atop the hill.  (Massachusetts Historical Society)

For generations many have argued over who ultimately chose where to fortify a position on the lower, more centrally located hill known today as “Breed’s Hill,” rather than the higher prominence known today as “Bunker Hill.”

But on that night, construction began sometime around midnight as hundreds of men with pickaxes and shovels constructed a fort atop the lower hill overlooking the settlement of Charlestown and the beaches along the Harbor. (NPS)

Astonished British generals wake on the morning of June 17 to discover the newly erected defenses. As the day continues, British ships bombard the untrained militia as they work, and Colonel Prescott walks the fortifications to raise morale. Thirsty and tired, the soldiers receive “no refreshment.” Back in Boston, Gage summons a war council.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, over 2,000 British soldiers, commanded by General Howe, land on the Charlestown shore. Continental snipers fire at the British as they march, and General Howe orders a combustible shell launched on Charlestown.  Amid smoke and flames, local inhabitants flee their homes in order to escape “Charlestown’s dismal fate.”

From rooftops and hilltops, spectators watch Charlestown burn. The clear day affords views to residents as far off as Braintree, including Abigail Adams and eight-year-old John Quincy Adams, who later recalls,

“The year 1775 was the eighth year of my age. Among the first fruits of the War, was the expulsion of my father’s family from their peaceful abode in Boston, to take refuge in his and my native town of Braintree….”

“For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt, liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in cold blood, or taken and carried into Boston as hostages, by any foraging or marauding detachment of men …”

“My father was separated from his family, on his way to attend the same continental Congress, and there my mother, with her children lived in unintermitted danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the 17th. of June lighted the fires in Charlestown.”

“I saw with my own eyes those fires, and heard Britannia’s thunders in the Battle of Bunker’s hill and witnessed the tears of my mother and mingled with them my own, at the fall of Warren a dear friend of my father, and a beloved Physician to me.”  (John Quincy Adams, National Archives)

British troops headed uphill, where they are frustrated by fences, pits, and tall grass. In dust and heat, the continental militia wait behind their walls. They hold fire until the British are in within 150 feet of the fortifications.

(Contrary to urban legend, there’s no evidence anyone ordered the men to hold their fire until they saw “the whites” of the enemies’ eyes. The writer Parson Weems seems to have invented this decades later.)

The Americans opened fire at about 50 yards, much too distant to see anyone’s eyes. However, one commander did tell his men to wait until they could see the splash guards – called half-gaiters – that British soldiers wore around their calves.)  (Smithsonian)

“Heavy and severe Fire” decimates the thick British ranks. Recoiling from the first attack, General Howe relies on “the Bravery of the King’s Troops”.

He immediately ordered his stumbling and disordered soldiers to make a second charge, this time only at the hill and rail fence. Again the colonists slaughter the King’s troops with their fire.

An hour passed as the British recover from the two attacks. They receive 400 new troops from Boston. A third time, General Howe orders his soldiers, with the help of the reinforcements, to charge the breastworks and the rail fence.

Prescott’s men again waited until the last minute to open fire. This time, they are running out of ammunition and are soon overrun by the British; then they fought with rocks and the butts of their muskets.

No longer able to withstand the British attack, Prescott’s men retreat north over the road to Cambridge, as General Stark’s New Hampshire troops cover them in the rear.

One of the last to abandon the fort on Breed’s Hill, Joseph Warren was killed as he retreats, and he was mourned with “the tears of multitudes.” In total, 140 colonists are dead and 271 are wounded. Before dark, the British again command the Charleston peninsula, though 226 British lie dead and 828 are wounded.

Despite renewed British control of the peninsula, colonial forces still trap the British in Boston. As supply issues and shortages plague them, the British prepare for further military commitment to defeat the “poor and ignorant” colonists. Meanwhile, the colonies scramble to assemble more soldiers.

Britain replaced General Gage with General Howe in early October 1775, and two weeks after the battle at Breed’s Hill, on July 2, 1775, George Washington arrived in Cambridge to take command of the Continental Army. (Massachusetts Historical Society)

Getting the Names Straight

Popularly known as ‘The Battle of Bunker Hill,’ as noted, the battle actually occurred on Breed’s Hill.

 The National Park Service, on their Boston National Historical Park website, notes that Historian Richard  Ketchum stated,

To the south of [Bunker Hill], and connected to it by a lower, sloping ridge, was a height of land not sufficiently distinguished to bear any particular name. Some called it Charlestown Hill;  others, considering it an appendage of Bunker Hill, referred to it by that title;

while some of the local people, out of deference to a farmer whose cattle grazed there, called it Breed’s. Its steep western flank, covered with orchards and gardens, leveled out near the settlement of Charlestown.

By 1775, the population of Charlestown hovered around 2,000 to 3,000 people with 400 structures in it, mostly situated on the south shore facing Boston. Bunker and Breed’s Hills, named after George Bunker and Ebenezer Breed, were mostly undeveloped with some farmhouses and pastures.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, also called the Battle of Breed’s Hill, (June 17, 1775), was the first major battle of the American Revolution, fought in Charlestown (now part of Boston) during the Siege of Boston.

Click the following link to a general summary about the Battle of Bunker Hill:

Click to access Battle-of-Bunker-Hill-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Battle-of-Bunker-Hill.pdf

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250 Years Ago … Continental Army

The colonies are abuzz following the adjournment of the First Continental Congress. As colonists deliberated and implemented Congress’s mandates, they also pondered the future of their relationship with Great Britain. How will the King respond to Congress’s petition? Will the proposed Association (a comprehensive non-importation and non-exportation scheme) force Parliament to repeal the Coercive Acts? Colonists wait only a few short months for an answer.

On February 3, 1775 Abigail Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren, reporting among other things, “The die is cast … but it seems to me the Sword is now our only, yet dreadful alternative”.

Forming the Continental Army and Naming Its Commander in Chief

America’s Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775 with exchanges of musketry between British regulars and Massachusetts militiamen at Lexington and Concord, as many delegates were already enroute to Philadelphia, where Congress was scheduled to convene on May 10, 1775.

When the delegates to the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on May 10, they soon learned that armed men commanded by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain in New York.

The New England colonists reacted to this news by raising four separate armies. With remarkable speed, committees of correspondence spread the traumatic news of Lexington and Concord beyond the borders of Massachusetts.

On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted “the American continental army” after reaching a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole.  This procedure and the desire for secrecy account for the sparseness of the official journal entries for the day.

On June 15, Congress unanimously chose George Washington. Washington had been active in the military planning committees of Congress and by late May had taken to wearing his old uniform.

Preparing the Continental Army to Go to War

Washington was also to prepare and to send to Congress an accurate strength return of that army. On the other hand, instructions to keep the army obedient, diligent, and disciplined were rather vague. The Commander in Chief’s right to make strategic and tactical decisions on purely military grounds was limited only by a requirement to listen to the advice of a council of war.

Within a set troop maximum, including volunteers, Washington had the right to determine how many men to retain, and he had the power to fill temporarily any vacancies below the rank of colonel. Permanent promotions and appointments were reserved for the colonial governments to make.

The record indicates only that Congress undertook to raise ten companies of riflemen, approved an enlistment form for them, and appointed a committee (including Washington and Schuyler) to draft rules and regulations “for the government of the army.”

The delegates’ correspondence, diaries, and subsequent actions make it clear that they really did much more. They also accepted responsibility for the existing New England troops and the forces requested for the defense of the various points in New York. The former were believed to total 10,000 men; the latter, both New Yorkers and Connecticut men, another 5,000.

By the third week in June delegates were referring to 15,000 at Boston. Meanwhile, the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 forced many delegates to rethink their position on reconciliation. As accounts of the battle reach Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson are drafting the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking up Arms. John Adams calls the document a spirited Manifesto.

When on June 19 Congress requested the governments of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire to forward to Boston “such of the forces as are already embodied, towards their quotas of the troops agreed to be raised by the New England Colonies,” it gave a clear indication of its intent to adopt the regional army.  Discussions the next day indicated that Congress was prepared to support a force at Boston twice the size of the British garrison, and that it was unwilling to order any existing units to be disbanded.

Congress then took steps for issuing paper money to finance the army, and on June 30 it adopted the Articles of War.

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) was an insurrection by which 13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies that won political independence and went on to form the United States of America.

The war followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and influential segment of its North American colonies that was caused by British attempts to assert greater control over colonial affairs after having long adhered to a policy of salutary neglect.

By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, the Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year.

At any given time, however, the American forces seldom numbered over 20,000; in 1781 there were only about 29,000 revolutionaries under arms throughout the country.

By contrast, the British army was a reliable steady force of professionals. Since it numbered only about 42,000, heavy recruiting programs were introduced.

Because troops were few and conscription unknown, the British government, following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 troops from various German princes.

An estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000–12,000 who died while prisoners of war.

Unreliable data places the total casualties for British regulars fighting in the Revolutionary War around 24,000 men. This total number includes battlefield deaths and injuries, deaths from disease, men taken prisoner, and those who remained missing. Approximately 1,200 Hessian soldiers were killed, 6,354 died of disease and another 5,500 deserted and settled in America afterward. (Battlefield)

Click the following links to general summaries about the Continental Army:

Click to access Continental-Army-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Continental-Army.pdf

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Liberty Bell

In the 18th century, citizens across the colonies depended on bells to communicate important news. Bells might call them to put out fires, notify them of an approaching merchant ship, warn them about a possible attack by Indians or enemy soldiers, or tell them to gather to hear news important to the community.  (NPS)

The Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly had the State House Bell made in 1751 to mark the 50-year anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges, which served as Pennsylvania’s original Constitution.

Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly Isaac Norris first ordered a bell for the bell tower of the State House of Pennsylvania (now known as Independence Hall) from the Whitechapel Foundry in London. That bell cracked on the first test ring.

Local Pennsylvania metalworkers John Pass and John Stow melted down that bell and cast a new one in Philadelphia. It is this bell that would ring to call lawmakers to their meetings and the townspeople together to hear the reading of the news. (NPS)

The following King James version Bible verse (Leviticus 25:10) is inscribed on the Bell: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”

This verse refers to the ‘Jubilee’, or the instructions to the Israelites to return property and free slaves every 50 years. (NPS)  Also included is information about the Pennsylvania Assembly and the Bell’s maker. (Constitution Center)

The bell originally rang in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House in 1753. It was in the Assembly Room of this building that members of the Second Continental Congress debated and signed the Declaration of Independence.

While there is evidence that the bell rang to mark the Stamp Act tax and its repeal, the bell probably didn’t ring on July 4, 1776. A magazine writer in 1847 made up the story of the bell ringing on the first Independence Day.  (NPS & Constitution Center)

Once the Congress approved the Declaration of Independence document on July 4, it was sent to a printer named John Dunlap. About 200 copies of the Dunlap Broadside were printed.

Then on July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon of Philadelphia read a printed Declaration of Independence to the public for the first time on what is now called Independence Square. The bell may also not have rung on that day, as well. (NPS & Constitution Center).

It is known that bells in the city of Philadelphia were ringing to celebrate the public announcement of the Declaration of Independence. According to the Independence Hall Association, the statehouse steeple was under repair at the time, making it unlikely for the Liberty Bell to be in use. But with no contemporary accounts, we just don’t know.

In 1777, the Bell was removed from Philadelphia under armed guard and taken to Allentown, Pa., where it was hidden in a church. The fear was the British would melt the Bell and use it to make cannons. It came back to Philadelphia the following year. (Constitution Center)

Though known as the State House Bell, the Biblical inscription became a herald of liberty, and provided a rallying cry for abolitionists, who first referred to the bell as the ‘Liberty Bell’ in 1835, years before that name was widely adopted. (Philadelphia Visitor Center)

While there are a lot of subsequent stories and statements naming dates, no one recorded when or why the Liberty Bell first cracked. But the most likely explanation is that a narrow split developed in the early 1840s after nearly 90 years of hard use.

In 1846, when the city of Philadelphia decided to repair the bell prior to George Washington’s birthday holiday, metal workers widened the thin crack to prevent its farther spread and restore the tone of the bell using a technique called ‘stop drilling’. The wide ‘crack’ in the Liberty Bell is actually the repair job.  There are over 40 drill bit marks in that wide ‘crack’.

The repair was not successful; the Public Ledger newspaper reported that the repair failed when another fissure developed. This second crack, running from the abbreviation for ‘Philadelphia’ up through the word ‘Liberty’, silenced the bell forever. (NPS)

“‘These is, of course, the large crack that everyone knows about. It is also full of things called ‘shrinkage’ and ‘porosity.” (Mike Modes) These are soft spots created when metal cooled after casting. They were common in metals in the 1750s.” (Star Bulletin, Nov 27, 1975)

Millions of Americans became familiar with the bell in popular culture through George Lippard’s 1847 fictional story ‘Ring, Grandfather, Ring’, when the bell came to symbolize pride in a new nation. Beginning in the late 1800s, the Liberty Bell traveled across the country for display at expositions and fairs, stopping in towns small and large along the way. (NPS)

In the 1950s, Hawai‘i had two Liberty Bells …

In 1950, a Liberty Bell replica was presented to the Territory “by the US  Treasury Department and toured the Neighbor Islands on US savings bond campaigns.” (Star Bulletin, Aug 11, 1959) (A significant number of other replicas have been made by others.)

The Treasury Department created 55 replica Liberty Bells for the “Save Your Independence” bond drive in 1950. Bells were delivered to States, Territories and the District of Columbia to support the bond program. (US Treasury)

“The bell, made in France, is an exact replica of the original Liberty Bell in every detail, except the crack.  It is of the same size and weight (2,080 pounds), made of the same materials and by the same process as the original.” (Star Bulletin, Jun 26, 1950)

“Island residents along with their fellow Americans on the Mainland are sounding a new note of independence on the Liberty Bell in a US Savings Bond campaign that will reach its climax on the Fourth of July.”

“Today, its replicas in the American States and Territories are proclaiming the independence of the individual to be had through orderly savings that will provide him with freedom from want in his declining years.” (Advertiser, May 23, 1950)

“Honolulans had their first hearing of the sounds of the Liberty Bell as Hawaii’s replica was rung 49 times at Iolani Palace this morning and again at a US savings bonds rally at King and Bishop street.” (Star Bulletin, Jun 27, 1950)

Starting on February 9, 1951 at Lincoln school, “Hawaii’s replica of the famous Liberty Bell will start a 97 day tour to schools on Oahu. … The bell will remain at each public and private school on the island for a 24 hour periods. Each school is to present an appropriate program in connection with the visit.” (Star Bulletin, Jan 11, 1951)

“Last summer, at least ten million Mainlanders heard and/or saw Hawaii’s 3,000 pound replica of the Liberty Bell. … This was, indeed, small service relative to the total statehood effort of many years duration. … Hundreds of pictures were taken, and the bell rang more than 50,000 times.” (Advertiser, Mar 3, 1959)

The bell went to bolster Hawaii’s unsuccessful bid for Statehood last year. (Apparently, sometime after 1959, a crack was drilled into the Hawai‘i bell.) Hawai‘i’s replica Liberty Bell is on the front lawn of the Hawaii State Capitol building facing Beretania.

Around 1953, someone used adhesive tape to simulate the crack in the Hawai‘i bell; in 1953, that was replaced by a “streak of bronze paint outlining exactly the split” in the original bell. (Sat Bulletin, July 14, 1953) Later, a simulated crack was drilled int to the Hawai‘i replica.

Then, later in the decade, a second Liberty Bell came to Hawai‘i … “The newest thing in commercial passenger planes chased the sun across the Pacific over the week end and didn’t lose by much.  The spinning world moves the sun’s rays westward from Honolulu to Tokyo in five hours.”

“Pan American World Airways’ big new plane made the 4,200-mile chase in 9 hours and 33 minutes,  Including 48 minutes on the ground at Wake Island.

The plane put into commercial Pacific service with this flight is the intercontinental Boeing 707 with 2,000 miles more range and greater size and seating capacity that the 707s in use before this. The flight was a milestone in aviation …”

The “plane is [named] the ‘Liberty Bell’ and it’s been ringing around the world.  It’s been to Moscow (carrying the press for Nixon’s visit), to London, Seattle, Tokyo (from San Francisco via the Great Circle), no-stop Seattle to Rome, Hawaii twice.” (Geroge Chaplin, Advertiser, Sep 7, 1959)

Click the links for more on the Liberty Bell:

Click to access Liberty-Bell-SAR-RT.pdf

Click to access Liberty-Bell.pdf

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